11. Then I looked on all that my hands had done and the labor I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it, and there was no profit under the sun. [Matt. 16:26.]
12. So I turned to consider [human] wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who succeeds the king? Nothing but what has been done already.
13. Then I saw that even [human] wisdom [that brings sorrow] is better than [the pleasures of] folly as far as light is better than darkness.
14. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that [in the end] one event happens to them both. [Prov. 17:24.]
15. Then said I in my heart, As it happens to the fool, so it will happen even to me. And of what use is it then for me to be more wise? Then I said in my heart, This also is vanity (emptiness, vainglory, and futility)!
16. For of the wise man, the same as of the fool, there is no permanent remembrance, since in the days to come all will be long forgotten. And how does the wise man die? Even as the fool!
17. So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it.
18. And I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will succeed me. [Ps. 49:10.]
19. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have dominion over all my labor in which I have toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!
20. So I turned around and gave my heart up to despair over all the labor of my efforts under the sun.
21. For here is a man whose labor is with wisdom and knowledge and skill; yet to a man who has not toiled for it he must leave it all as his portion. This also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and a great evil!
22. For what has a man left from all his labor and from the striving and vexation of his heart in which he has toiled under the sun?